Bob C

MOTOWN MAN, a debut novel by Flint author Bob Campbell Bradley was skeptical of this diversity-training jazz. He resented the notion that blacks and black culture was reducible to something resembling a freshman survey course or a chemistry class for non-technical majors. But he didn’t say that. Instead, he asked: What can you really learn in a week that you don’t already know? And what then? “I don’t know,” Abby had said. “Guess I’ll find out, huh?” (FLINT, Mich. – Nov. 28, 2020) In the debut literary novel, MOTOWN MAN, Bradley and Abby are an interracial couple looking to build a life together in a fading factory town rife with veiled racial tension, marked by uncertainty and on the edge of losing its identity. However, to Bradley’s younger brother, James, their relationship is a fool’s errand. During an unseasonably cold week in November 1991, the true value of their bonds is revealed and hardened. Published by Urban Farmhouse Press (Windsor, Ontario), MOTOWN MAN is available now. “The title sprang from a conversation between two main characters, and the colorful way in which Black folks talk in relaxed settings and comfortable surroundings,” said author Bob Campbell. “In addition, Motown, as in the Motown Sound in music, signifies an enlightened, almost enchanting, moment in American history, particularly in the early to mid-1960s. On one level, it was a period of great possibilities and the promise of a ‘Great Society’. Motown, with those sweet and buoyant lyrics, provided the soundtrack for that sense of hope and shared humanity that cut across racial lines. Of course, there was so much more to Motown, a depth and evolution, than that which tends to exist in the popular imagination.” The All Write in Sin City (Windsor, Ontario) podcast in Windsor, Ontario, called MOTOWN MAN “a great story.” All Write interviewer Irene Moore Davis added: “I think that it’s going to lead to some great conversations. It’s the kind of book that really is a perfect book to read at this point in history.” Campbell’s creative nonfiction and essays have appeared in Belt Magazine, Forge Literary Magazine and Gravel Magazine. He is a contributor to Belt Publishing’s Midwest Architecture Journeys (edited by Zach Mortice), published in October 2019. Campbell was a staff writer for the Flint Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader and Detroit Free Press. He was also an electrician at AC Spark Plug, formerly a division of General Motors, before moving into journalism. MOTOWN MAN By Bob Campbell (bobcampbellwrites.com) Urban Farmhouse Press November 2020 Pages: 200 ISBN-13: 978-1988214399 Purchase: Urban Farmhouse Press www.urbanfarmhousepress.ca am*zon Books Bookshop.org